How To Merge Powerpoint Files into a Single File

Posted by Arch on March 20, 2019

If you need to use slides from two or more PowerPoint presentations for your school assignment or office presentation, there are several ways to go about it. You can insert individual slides, import whole presentations, or simply merge two presentations. Let’s take a closer look at how to merge PowerPoint files.

Reuse Slides

Reusing slides is the easiest way to include slides from one presentation into another presentation. With this method, you’ll be able to control what slides you’re adding and choose where to insert them. Here is how the reuse slides method works.

Launch PowerPoint on your computer.

Open the document to which you want to add slides.

Find the place where you want to add a slide or slides. Then, click between two existing slides.

Next, click the “Insert” section of the Main Menu.

After that, click on the “New Slide” icon on the left side of the menu.

Once the dropdown menu opens, click the option on the bottom – “Reuse Slides…”

The “Reuse Slides” dialog box will open. Click the “Browse” button. If you check the box next to “Keep source formatting”, the newly inserted slides will remain as they were in the original presentation. If you uncheck the box, their formatting will be adjusted to the one in the main presentation.

Browse the presentations and click the one you want to add the slides from. Click “OK”.

You will see the thumbnails of the available slides. Browse and select the ones you’d like to insert into your main document. You can click “Insert All Slides” to import all slides from the external presentation.

If you want to discard the theme of your main presentation in favor of the theme in the external presentation, you should select the “Apply Theme to All Slides” option when selecting the slides you want to insert.

This method is great if you want to add a slide or two to your main presentation. Also, if you want to add bits and pieces from various presentations to your main presentation, this is the way to go. Though you can insert all slides from an external presentation via this method, it is better to take the Insert Object route for that.

Insert Object

The insert object method is your best option if you want to insert all slides from an external presentation and keep the animations and transitions between them.

Have in mind that once you insert the slides into your new presentation, they won’t be linked to the original file. As such, any changes you make to the original file will not affect the slides you inserted into your main presentation. Conversely, if you edit the slides in your main presentation, the external file from which you copied those slides will remain unchanged.

With that out of the way, let’s see how the insert object method works.

Launch PowerPoint and open the main presentation.

Insert a new slide. Delete the text boxes, as it should be completely blank.

Next, click the “Insert” tab in the Main Menu.

Click the “Object” icon.

You will see the “Insert Object” dialog box. There, you should pick the “Create from file” option. You can enter the address of the document into the text box and press “Enter” or click the “Browse” button.

Browse for the external presentation you’d like to insert into your main one and double-click on it.

Next, you will see only the first slide of the imported presentation. Though you can’t see them at the moment, the remaining slides are below.

Stretch the inserted object to fit the size of the slide of your main presentation to avoid changes in size of the slides once you play the presentation.

After you have successfully inserted the entire object into your main presentation, you can adjust and tweak it to make sure it runs smoothly.

Merge Documents

Finally, you can opt to completely merge two PowerPoint presentations into one. Here’s how this method works:

Open PowerPoint and open the main presentation.

Click the “Review” section of the Main Menu.

Next, click the “Compare” button. You’ll find it in the “Compare” section.

Browse for the presentation you want to merge with your main presentation. Select it by double-clicking on it.

Once the merging is complete, you will see the Revisions pane right of the merged presentations.

In the “Presentation Changes” portion, you will see the differences between the presentations and choose which changes you want to keep and which you want to discard.

The “Slide Changes” portion displays the differences between the individual slides of the two presentations. Choose the settings you want to keep for the final version.

Final Thoughts

The methods explained in this article will help you take your PowerPoint skills to the next level. You’ll be able to combine and merge your presentations like a pro in mere minutes.